Metamorphosis: The Temple
by JB Hawke
Summary: AU starting 2x10. Coulson, not Tripp, is in the Temple with Skye. After the change, Coulson and Skye get closer as they try to figure out who they are within SHIELD and as people. First in the Metamorphosis series.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not have any rights to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Summary: AU starting 2x10. Coulson, not Tripp, is in the Temple with Skye. After the change, Coulson and Skye get closer as they try to figure out who they are within SHIELD and as people. First in the Metamorphosis series.

Rating: T for language, violence, and sexual references

Couples: Skye/Coulson, Bobbi/Hunter

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As Coulson came down the stairs to see Whitehall facing away from him, gun pointed at Skye's father. Without hesitating, he shot the Hydra leader through the heart. As the German crumpled to the ground, the doctor turned a furious gaze toward Coulson.

"What did you do?!" The exclaimation was startling in it's intensity.

"You're welcome?"

Coulson wasn't sure why he was surprised that the man wasn't making sense, so far he had no reason to expect him to be stable. Before he could say anything else, gunfire erupted down the hall. He turned his head and gun in that direction. From the corner of his eye, he saw the doctor coming quickly toward him. He swiveled around, but the man was already too close for a shot so he tried to deflect the fist coming at his face. His arm swept the punch to the side; however, the force sent him sprawling backward to the ground. The doctor was lunging for him. Before he could roll away, there was a shout from behind the doctor.

"Stop!" It was Skye. Both men froze where they were.

Skye strode around the doctor giving him a wide berth and keeping a gun on him every second. She stopped next to Coulson. "You okay, AC?" she asked inclining her head in his direction.

"Fine. You?" He got back on his feet.

He could see the side of her mouth turn up in a smirk. "I'm good. I see Whitehall's down. Now we just have to deal with Raina."

"Ward?"

The smile grew. "I shot him. He was at a bad angle and I was in a hurry, so the bullets went in the side of his chest. But even if he manages to survive, he's not doing anymore damage today."

Coulson nodded. "What do you want to do with Daddy?"

Skye's face grew serious. "You're the Director?"

"True, but he's your family. And at this point, you've spent the most time with him." Coulson knew what he wanted to do, he wanted to lock the bastard away so that he could never come after Skye again. He trusted Skye more than anyone besides May though, and he wanted her to make her own decisions as they concerned her life and family.

"Daisy," Cal spoke up. He saw both agents realize what he had just revealed. "Please..."

Skye stopped him. "No. My name is Skye. It's the name I chose for myself and it's the only name I want."

"But your mother..."

"Don't bring her into this. This is about you right now. With Director Coulson's permission, you can leave now and never get involved with SHIELD, Hydra, or aliens again. If you try to follow us or stop us or if I find out you've killed more people, I'll kill you without a moment's thought. Director?"

Again Coulson nodded. He added, "You have ten seconds, Doctor. If you're going, do it now."

Cal had a look that was both sad and angry as he turned and walked down the hallway. The other two remained quiet as left.

When he was gone, Skye spoke, "I'm sorry. I wanted to kill him now, but I couldn't...not without giving him another chance." She sounded mostly calm, yet there was a tiny tremor that told Coulson that she wanted to cry.

He put his arm around her gently. "You did good. And sometimes when you give people a second chance, they live up to it and beyond." He saw her smile faintly. He hoped that she knew he was talking about her.

Knowing that there was still work to be done, he let go of her. "Where do you think Raina went?"

"The moment she found out that Hydra had the obelisk and the city had been found, she wanted them to take her. If the drill has already broken through..."

"...she'll be down there," finished Coulson. They started running down the stairs. "Tripp and FitzSimmons should have finished placing explosives down there by now. They'll bring the whole place down. But we don't know have comms right now, so we can't know for sure. I'll have to go down after her to make damn sure she doesn't succeed."

"I'm coming too."

"Skye," he warned, using what she called his 'Director' voice.

"AC," she replied. "Raina said the obelisk revealed what was inside. We know she's obsessed with Gifteds. She wants to be one, that's why she's here. If she's right and it gives her powers before we get there, you're going to need back up."

They had reached the drill room by this time. The obelisk had been removed from its case and a rope was hanging down the shaft in the floor. Coulson grabbed the rope and said, "Alright, let's go."

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Back upstairs, Cal found Agent 33 struggling to get Grant Ward out of the building. He told her to put down the injured man so he could check his wounds. Ward had already passed out so he could hardly protest. Skye's bullets had done quite a bit of damage, but the doctor was able to stop the bleeding. Then he picked up the former Hydra agent bridal style, ignoring the woman's protests.

They had just cleared the edge of the theatre's property when the earthquake began. He smiled, believing that his Daisy was finding her destiny after all. It would only be a matter of time before she would come back to him.

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Agents May, Morse, and Hunter met up in the center of the theatre. All the Hydra agents were dead or fleeing.

"Where's Coulson?"

"Did anyone ever find Skye?"

The questions were voiced by Bobbi and Hunter simultaneously. May shook her head. "I don't know the answer to either of those."

"You don't think..." Bobbi started but didn't continue.

"That they went down into the city, even though it's rigged to blow?" May had already been thinking it before Bobbi began.

"Well that would be bloody stupid," stated Hunter. "Which means that's probably what happened."

"So what do we do now?" asked Bobbi looking to the senior agent.

"We follow the plan. We rendezvous with the others at the bus. That's what Coulson would want. Maybe they're in the city. Maybe Ward took Skye and Coulson followed. Either way, without comms, he's planning for us to follow the plan."

"Let's go then," urged Hunter. "Those explosives will be going off soon and this theatre will probably start to collapse."

May nodded. She hoped Phil and Skye weren't doing anything stupid.

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The underground alien city was not at all like Skye had pictured it. The floor had some carvings, but the walls were stark.

They had brought glow sticks down with them and as they rounded a corner Mack suddenly appeared in front of them. He was standing still and did not seem to register their presence.

"Mack?" asked Skye. She had no idea why he was down in the city. When he didn't react, she turned to look at Coulson. The Director was tense, as if he was waiting for Mack to attack. "AC?"

"He went down first. We pulled him back up and he attacked. FitzSimmons think the city took him over to protect itself. We'll get him on our way out."

"Okay."

Within a minute they found themselves at the door to the temple. Coulson used his hand to signal Skye to go in first. When she rounded the corner she saw Raina standing near a stone pedstal and holding the obelisk.

The other woman smiled almost sweetly. "I knew you would come. I've been waiting. We can find out together what we'll become."

"I'm not here for that. I'm taking you and the obelisk out of here. Now."

Still smiling Raina said, "I'm sorry, Skye, but I'm not running from my destiny." At that moment, a shot rang out near Skye's ear. Raina stood still for a few seconds, blood beginning to leak out of her forehead. Then she fell. Skye let out the breath she was holding, thinking it was over. But as Raina fell, the obelisk left her hand of its own accord. It floated through the air and came to rest on the pedestal.

"AC, what do we do?" asked Skye frantically. She could feel the earth begin to move. The doors to the temple shifting closed.

The fear was evident on Coulson's face as he struggled to decide what to do. He didn't know how to stop the obelisk; but if the plan had gone well, the explosive charges were about to go off. Deciding that they should get Mack and get out, he grabbed Skye's hand to pull her along. Unfortunately, at that point the doors had become to narrow for them to get out.

"I'm so sorry, Skye," he said, his voice revealing deep pain. "I shouldn't have brought you here." He pulled her into a hug, burying his face in her hair. "This is all because of me. If I hadn't been resurrected..."

She pulled back from his shoulder, then leaned into his face and cut him off with a kiss. It was sweet and loving and over too quickly. But she had to say this before the end, "This is not your fault. Fury brought you back and if he hadn't I never would have found my family. I wouldn't know May, Fitz, Simmons, Tripp, and the others. Without you believing in me, I would still be an ignorant hacktivist with no idea of the good I could really do. I need you in my life." There were tears in her eyes as she finished.

Between the kiss and Skye's words, Coulson was caught in a whirlpool of emotions. He said the first words that came to mind. "I love you."

"I love you too, AC."

They shared a sad smile.

During their exchange, the obelisk had revealed the crystals inside and begun to glow. Their feet began to tingle and they looked down. To their horror, they were being covered in something hard and dark. It looked like what happed to the people who were deemed unworthy.

As the dark substance crept higher, Coulson thought of Skye's kiss and hoped the end would be painless for both of them. The last thing he was aware of before the darkness took him was the sound of explosions beyond the stone walls.


	2. Chapter 2

The rock around her began to crumble and Skye opened her eyes. Her hands curled into fists down at her sides. She could see the casing flaking off Coulson in front of her. How long they had been encased she didn't know, but the room was filled with dust and the room shook from the explosions outside. The doors were still closed. They were trapped.

Suddenly the ground began to shake even harder. She maintained her balance easily, but as Coulson's feet were freed, he stumbled. Skye reached out for him just as another big tremor hit.

"AC, this place is going to come down on top of us," she cried out.

"I know," he said grimly. He regained his footing and pushed her up against the wall. It was just in time—a large piece of ceiling collapsed and crushed the crystal where it stood on the pedestal. "This is the safest we can get right now."

Skye gripped his hand tightly. "What are we going to do?"

"Hope that one of the doors gets jarred open and we can get out. The explosives were centered around the temple. It should have buried by now, but maybe the aliens protectively layered some other material in the walls."

"So we just wait?"

"Unless you have a better idea."

She shook her head. As they leaned against the wall, she tried to maintain the calm center that May had been teaching her. But it was no use. She could feel the terror welling up inside her. Another tremor hit and Coulson had to let go of her hand to steady himself. That was it. She turned to face the wall and began beating it with the side of her fist.

Phil saw Skye's fear and tried to stop her from hurting herself, but the quaking ground threw him to the floor. As he looked up at her, he was astonished to notice that she was steady on her feet. Then suddenly the wall that she was hitting rippled like a wave and turned to dust. The tremors all but stopped. Without hesitation, he sprang to his feet and pushed her through the hole.

There was a lot of rubble outside the temple, but there was enough room for them to climb back toward the shaft that led to the fortress. It was slow going. He put Skye in front of him. They didn't talk much because they had to concentrate on where they were going. The earth all around them was still shifting. Even though they had both spent so much time looking at the map, they were never quite sure they were going the right way.

In the end, they made it. There was a rope still dangling down. He didn't know if it was left there for them or just forgotten in the rush. Either way he was grateful.

When they finally emerged from the shaft, the two let themselves fall to the ground. Skye reached for his hand and he gave hers a squeeze. Their exhaustion overtook them and the world around them went dark once more.

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"Skye!" Coulson shouted as he woke up back at The Playground. He was dazed. The last thing he remembered was crawling out of the ground with the young agent.

Simmons rushed into the room. "Thank god, you're awake, sir! How are you feeling?"

Ignoring her question, he repeated himself. "Skye. Where's Skye?"

"She's asleep in the next room," answered May quietly as she entered. "You've both been out for the last twenty-four hours or so."

"But she's okay?"

"Yes, sir," replied Simmons. She was looking him over closely. "Mack is also here. Whatever took over him seems to be gone and it protected him from injury."

Coulson nodded. He felt ashamed that he hadn't thought about the mechanic during their escape, not that it would have done much good. "How did he get out?"

"He says it was like a dream that he suddenly woke up from right before the explosives went off. He came to himself and ran. Luckily, he only got a few scrapes from falling debris."

May fixed him with a serious look as she came up next to the bed. "Phil," she began slowly, "Mack thinks he remembers seeing you and Skye go into the temple."

Coulson motioned toward the door. Simmons closed it quickly and came back to the bedside.

"Raina had the obelisk. She took it down into the city. Skye and I followed. We caught up to her in the temple. She refused to leave so I shot her. But the obelisk...it...flew onto a pedestal in the center of the room. The doors shut around us. Then the obelisk opened and there was some kind of crystal inside. It glowed and then we were covered in what looked like black stone..." He trailed off as he remembered the tender moments he had shared there with Skye.

"And then?" prompted May.

"Then the stone crumbled. The room was shaking. Some of it was the explosions, but I think...That is...It seemed to get worse when Skye was badly frightened. She was hitting the stone wall and all of the sudden it turned to powder. Then once we were out and she relaxed more, the tremors almost disappeared." He frowned, trying to remember more.

May and Simmons were silent for a minute as they tried to process this information. It was May who spoke first. "So Raina was right? It wasn't a weapon per se, it was a means of transformation."

"I need to take DNA samples," exclaimed Simmons. Wasting no time, she left the room to get samples from Skye.

When she was gone, May asked, "What about you?"

"What about me?" He knew what she was asking but tried to dodge it—even knowing that it wouldn't work. Carving the alien symbols was bad enough, he didn't want to add alien powers to it.

"Given that the obelisk didn't kill you and instead treated you the same as Skye, I think it is safe to assume that it changed you too."

"I suppose." His answer earned him a hard look from May.

"You haven't noticed anything? I don't want this turning into another thing that you try to hide and hush up. More secrets will only fracture the team."

"I know," he answered with a sigh. "And if I notice anything, you'll know right away. So far, though, I haven't noticed anything odd."

"Are you sure?"

He closed his eyes and thought back to escaping the city. "Nothing. Maybe Skye noticed something. We can ask her when she wakes up."

May saw the apprehension on his face. "Rest. Go back to sleep if you can. We'll wake you when Skye opens her eyes."

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Coulson only had to wait forty minutes before Simmons stuck her head in the door to let him know that Skye was awake. "She asked for you first thing." Simmons didn't wait for him before heading back to her other patient.

He smiled at the thought of Skye asking for him and wasted no time in going to her bedside.

"AC," she said smiling brightly when she saw him. "We made it out and the world is still here."

"It is," he confirmed. "It wasn't a weapon after all."

"No. At least not the kind we feared..." Skye had an unsure look on her face.

Simmons asked carefully, "What do you mean, Skye?"

The woman in the bed looked carefully at Coulson, wondering if he felt it too. He squeezed her hand. She began, "Raina kept going on about what's inside...that whole 'what we'll become' bit. She had learned about it from my father who was also adamant that it was my destiny to go down there." Here she paused for a moment. "What if the temple turns people into weapons? Maybe it's paranoia, but I don't feel the same. My body feels different. I don't know exactly what it is, but it's almost like I feel more in tune with everything around me than I do with myself."

Coulson nodded his understanding. "Skye, don't be afraid. Whatever is happening, we're in it together. We have some reason to believe that the temple did something to you, but Simmons is still running tests. The most important thing right now is for us to rest and stay calm."

"Are you okay, AC?"

"I was hoping you could tell me. Did you see anything unusual when we were down there?" He smiled faintly as she wrinkled her brow. It was cute. But then she seemed like she had thought of an answer and he grew tense. He could feel Simmons hovering behind him.

"Your eyes," said Skye.

He was confused. "What about my eyes?"

"I could hardly see anything underground. You made me go first, but you had to keep directing me where to go. Could you see?"

Coulson thought back. "It was dim. Like being in a movie theater with the lights half down. But I could see shapes pretty clearly."

"Once when I looked back at you, just for a moment, you're eyes looked they were glowing the way a cat's would. Like they were reflecting back what little light there was."

She watched him carefully for his reaction. He tried to keep upbeat about it for her. "Jemma, I think you're going to need to run some tests on me. As soon as you have some data on us, we're going to have a team debrief." The scientist nodded and left the room in search of equipment.

"You're going to tell everyone?" Skye was surprised. After the carving, she hadn't expected this openess from him.

He chuckled, knowing what she was thinking. "Yes. May pointed out the damage that keeping secrets has done already. We're rebuilding SHIELD from the ground up and I don't want it to have a weak foundation."

She nodded and he continued, "And after that meeting, I think there are somethings you and I need to discuss."

They smiled at each other almost shyly. Then he gave her hand a squeeze and told her to rest.

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"Will he live?" Agent 33 was still distressed by the loss of Daniel Whitehall. She had no idea what she would do if Ward died now. Perhaps, she could make herself useful to the doctor.

Cal's answer was reassuring. "He'll live. He'll even be fit for fighting again in a few months, fortunately."

"Who are you planning to fight?" asked 33.

"I want my daughter back. I believe she'll be in a better frame of mind to meet me again now. And I believe that Mr. Ward here will be eager to help find her."

"She shot him." It was a statement, but the implication was clear.

"Somehow," said Cal, "I think that will only make him more determined."


	3. Chapter 3

Things at the Playground were quiet. Since Puerto Rico, most of the team had spent their time relaxing. Bobbi had been spending most of her days in the garage with Mack and Fitz. May and Skye were doing more Tai Chi than normal. Hunter and Tripp had been watching movies and television non-stop. It was only Simmons and Coulson that seemed to be engaged in work. Jemma was constantly in the lab, and Coulson would come in to check on her almost every hour.

Bobbi, Mack, and Fitz speculated about what had Simmons so occupied. They figured it had something to do with the temple or the obelisk. And Bobbi suspected that May and Skye were also in on whatever it was.

After the realization that Coulson had been injected with somekind of alien serum, she and Mack had talked it all over. They were both a bit nervous that their leader could go crazy any time or might not be human. Then, in the week since the operation, Fitz had let it slip that Skye had also been healed using the same serum. Bobbi was working out a plan for finding out more when Tripp had announced that Coulson wanted everybody in the cafeteria in an hour.

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Everyone, minus the Koenigs who were off-base, was sitting quietly around the table when the biochemist and the Director came in. The latter addressed the group, "Thank you all for being punctual. There are a few things that have come out of our time in San Juan that need to be shared. But first, I heard that some of you had concerns when you found out about my resurrection."

He looked around the room. His eyes settled on Mack, who glanced at Skye. The mechanic remembered what he had said to her in the van, he hadn't know then that she had gone through a similar procedure.

Coulson went on, "I understand the reasons for your concern. I had dealings with Captain America, Hulk, and Thor; yet I was afraid of what it might mean to have something extraterrestrial in me. The whole TAHITI project was a nightmare that I still don't remember fully. In spite of my lack of memory, I was afraid and guilty. I didn't want anyone to know what I might have done. So when I began carving like Garrett had, I hid it. May found out and eventually we brought Skye in. And, of course, you all know now because of the killer."

He paused, waiting for questions or comments. Mack was the one who spoke, "I'm sorry for what I thought. This isn't the kind of thing I have any experience with. I'm still having a hard time with aliens at all."

"Thank you." Coulson looked around before going on. "Mack, Bobbi, and Hunter...you may or may not have heard that Skye was also injected with GH-325 when she was critically wounded." He saw that Hunter was the only one who registered surprise. "Seeing Garrett's carving triggered the same in me, but Skye was exposed to the symbols but never carved. We speculated that the alien DNA might not have actually been alien to her. Many of you don't know that when Skye was a baby, she was found by SHIELD and given the classification 0-8-4."

Skye heard the gasps at this revelation and willed herself not to look around. She didn't know what she would see on their faces, but she didn't want to take the chance.

"SHIELD lost track of her and we found her on my first mission post-resurrection. Because of this, we have had very little data to go on. Raina and Cal have given us more clues, but we still don't know as much as we would like."

"Why are you telling us all this?" Hunter asked what everyone was thinking.

"Because of San Juan. Here's the highlights: Raina could touch the obelisk, so could Skye. Cal and Raina were both sure that Skye should go into the temple to find her's and Raina's destinies. During the fire fight, Raina took the obelisk down into the temple. Skye and I pursued, I killed Raina. The temple closed and the obelisk opened. We were covered in a black substance that then cracked and peeled away. While we escaped, I noticed that the tremors correlated with Skye's fear and she noticed that my eyes glowed for a moment."

A few moments of silence passed as everyone tried to absorb what they'd just heard. Then Coulson gestured to Simmons.

"Right then." She stood up. "I have taken multiple samples from both Director Coulson and Skye. Their DNA shows definite changes compared to the samples I had on file. I am unsure how this change was created, and the changes are not identical. What I know so far is that both have increased metabolisms. Skye has demonstrated an ability to create tremors but I will need Fitz's help to determine how this functions. As for the Director, he seems to have developed heightened senses and quicker reflexes."

"So, uh, not to be a dick," started Tripp, "but, uh, Skye has this tremor thing under control? Since this is an underground base and all."

"So far," answered Skye. "I've been doing Tai Chi with May to make sure I stay focused. But if it becomes a problem, I'll leave until I can be a hundred percent in control."

"It won't come to that," stated May as if she was daring someone to disagree.

"Yes, well, to continue," said Simmons. "I will need all of you to keep your eyes open and let me know if you see anything strange from Skye or the Director. We may be finding new aspects to this for sometime."

Mack interjected, "If their DNA was changed rather than still changing, shouldn't the changes all be evident now?"

Jemma shook her head. "It's kind of like a developing child. The capability maybe in place, but the neural connections need to be formed. For example, Skye's ability first showed itself when she was afraid. But her attempts to use it since have been slower going. If we hadn't been made aware of it, she might not know it existed yet. So as I said, keep your eyes open and let me know if you see anything new."

"Sounds exciting," Fitz spoke for the first time. In defiance of the serious conversation, everyone chuckled at the engineer's statement.

Coulson pronounced the meeting adjourned. As they all filtered out of the room, he quietly asked Skye to meet him in his office.

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Grant Ward opened his eyes and took in the room around him. He had been in and out of conciousness for an unknown amount of time. This was the first time he felt clear headed.

The room was dimly lit. There were no windows. On the left side of his bed was the door. On the right side was a table with some instruments and a chair in which Agent 33 was dozing.

Before he could wake the woman, Cal entered. "Ah, you're awake. How do you feel?"

"Like the woman I love emptied a clip into me," he said the first thought that passed through his mind.

"Yes," responded Cal, "Not a good feeling I would imagine. However, you are recovering well so far."

"I suppose I should thank you for that." Ward turned a suspicious eye toward Skye's father.

Cal shrugged. "Perhaps. I did save your life; but, if it becomes necessary, I will end it."

"What is it you want from me?"

"Help finding my daughter."

Ward laughed dryly. "She hates both of us."

"She hated us then. But I believe that she found her way into the Temple. In that case, she'll soon find that people will fear her. You and I will be there to support her. We just need to show her that we're not the evil she believes us to be."

"Oh, and how do you plan to accomplish that?"

"You were on the right track with Bakshi. We're going to start taking out Hydra agents."

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"So..." said Skye awkwardly as she closed the door to Coulson's office behind her. "This is all pretty freaky, huh?"

"Not the word I would use. Scary, maybe. Or life-altering, perhaps," Coulson was only half-joking.

She tried to cheer him up, "At least, we have some advantages against the bad guys now. And maybe some day they'll have Phil Coulson trading cards."

"I seriously doubt that," he said but chuckled anyway. "I imagine you know why I asked you to meet with me...I'm sorry it didn't happen sooner."

"It's okay. I've really wanted to talk to you, but this other revelation was more urgent."

He nodded. "Sometimes, I really hate being Director. I have to put everything else before my own interests."

"Didn't know you had interests outside of SHIELD," Skye teased. "And don't say Lola or Captain America, those are close enough."

"I'm very interested in you," he said in a low voice.

She tried not to blush. "Uh, hello, 0-8-4 slash SHIELD agent slash maybe future superhero."

"My interest in you is very unprofessional. And I think, I hope, after that kiss in the Temple that said interest is mutual." He looked at her carefully for her reaction. She had made the first move, but they had thought it might be the end of the world. Plus, in the intervening time some things had changed dramatically.

Skye laughed, partly from nerves and partly at how cute he looked with that apprehensive look on his face. Her laughter seemed to take him aback. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to laugh. Obviously, I like you that way." He let out the breath he had been holding. "Hell, I already said it back there...I love you. I want to be with you...Phil."

"I love you too," he said. He pulled her into a hug and gently kissed her lips. The kiss ended and Skye dropped her head onto his chest.

After a few minutes, she spoke quietly, "Now what?"

He tried to come up with a confident sounding answer but failed. He opted for the truth, "I don't know. We need to figure out this transformation stuff. And even though I haven't called out Hunter and Bobbi, I don't know what policy should be about agents being involved. I think, we probably need to talk to May. Don't tell her I said it, but sometimes I think she would be better at this job than I am."

"Nah, she'd just shoot everyone instead of trying to negotiate," Skye joked and they both laughed. "But we should talk to her. She's your best friend and my SO. And she won't have any problem calling us out if we start acting stupid."

"Exactly," he agreed. "Are you okay with taking things slow while we figure all this out?"

"It's not ideal, but after all we're a fugitive spy agency living in hiding. I think we've managed to deal with the not ideal pretty well so far." Even after a year and a half, Skye's ability to look on the bright side of things still amazed him. If anyone would be justified in falling apart, it was her. Yet here she was taking it all in stride.

"Now we just need sweet hero codenames," she said, earning a smile and a laugh from him. "What do you think we should call me? Tremor Girl? Shaker? Vibro Woman? Actually, scratch that last one, sounds to much like vibrator." He laughed again. "Well, mister superhero fanboy, do you have any better ideas?"

"Hmmm..." Coulson thought about it. "How about Quake?"

"That's actually pretty awesome. Quake it is."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's note: Sorry this took so long, I had a very difficult time deciding if I wanted to incorporate elements from the show since it came back from the mid-season break or not. I chose not to for the most part.**

Things at the Playground had returned relatively to normal after the meeting regarding their adventures in Puerto Rico. Skye was frequently concious of eyes on her, especially during her training sessions with May. Fortunately for her though, the main form of amusement for everyone else had quickly become testing the parameters of Coulson's new abilities. The vagueness of Simmon's statement regarding his 'quicker reflexes and heightened senses' had given Hunter an excuse to start trying to prank the Director. After a couple of incidents (one involving a bucket of syrup over a door), Bobbi, Mack, Tripp, and Fitz began to come up with and execute their own ideas. Coulson had tried to discourage them but then Simmons had said it was a good idea, provided they paid attention and reported the results back to her. So now Coulson never knew when something might come flying at his head...or his feet.

From these 'childish' experiments as well as more scientific tests, Simmons had concluded several things. Firstly, he was able to see more sharply than should be humanly possible and that included seeing in darkness. The latter appeared to be similar to the way cats and other animals see in the dark, thus Skye seeing his eyes flash underground. Second, Jemma had run tests that showed his senses of smell and hearing were again closer to those of predatory mammals than to ordinary humans. Finally, his reflexes were so fast that he caught a crossbow bolt shot at his back from fifteen yards (Hunter was almost put in the cell for a week after that).

Despite the consistent need to use his new abilities, Coulson was feeling more than a tad uncomfortable with them. He knew that he had it easier than Skye who was worried that she would accidently destroy the base or drop the Bus out of the sky. Still, he was beginning to feel like he was changing in mind as well as in body; that he was becoming dangerous. For someone who ran a secret spy organization and has worked with the Avengers, this might seem silly. It wasn't as if the Phil Coulson from before the temple was average. He had spent decades as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, time in which he had killed more than a few men. But during those times, he had always felt sure of his own thoughts and relatively sure of his instincts. Now, there was an agressiveness creeping in. His first instinct to the team's antics was to throw them into the wall. He had never acted on that instinct, but the impulse was getting stronger over time.

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"Any sign of her?" asked Cal as he came up behind Ward. It had been a month since Puerto Rico. Ward was recovering quickly but was not up to taking on Hydra agents. So while he got stronger, they were alternately working on plans to strike at Hydra and looking for any information about Skye and S.H.I.E.L.D.

Ward answered curtly. "Nothing."

"There should be something," said the older man angrily. "It was different when I didn't know anything about her, but now we have all this information and we still can't find anything. It's intolerable!"

Ward sighed. This was going to get old real fast. "It's only been a few weeks. After a mission like that, it's not unusual to take time to regroup before taking on a new one. And if you are right about Skye making it into the temple and transforming, or whatever Raina called it, then there is a good chance that May and Coulson are keeping a tight watch on her."

"Well, that should help our cause at any rate," Cal reasoned, "We can free her from their suppression of her true self."

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"So when are we going to test out my new power in the field?" Skye and May were taking a water break during a hand to hand combat training session. Simmons sat nearby, watching to see if anything abnormal would occur when Skye was under stress.

May took a moment before answering, "It hasn't really been discussed yet. But since you have it under control, we could discuss it with Coulson." She turned toward the young scientist. "Simmons, what do you think?"

"It's a risk, of course." Jemma was noncommittal as always. "But I think we are reaching the point where it is the logical next step."

After a moment of thought she added, "Yes. I think we should talk to the Director about it tomorrow after the briefing. The next time we send a small team into an isolated area, it would be a good setting for field test."

"Speaking of AC," began Skye hesitantly, "how is he doing with all this?"

Giving her pupil a surprised glance, May commented, "I would have expected you of all people to know."

"I'm not sure what you mean," said Skye, concious of the fact that was probably blushing and Jemma was now looking at her closer than before.

The senior agent smiled softly and clarified: "Aside from not telling you about the writing immediately, Coulson has always been very transparent with you, more so than the rest of us. And since you and he were the only ones directly affected by the device, I expected him to confide in you about how he was dealing with it."

"Oh, I gotcha." Skye tried to cover her pleasure at this assessment of their relationship and also her disappointment that he hadn't, in fact, confided in her much lately. "I suppose he doesn't want to burden me with more while I try to deal with this myself."

"But then you just end up worrying anyway," commented Simmons. The other two wondered if she was thinking of her damaged relationship with Fitz.

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"Tell me everything you know about SHIELD's movements since San Juan," demanded Ward as he held the Hydra agent by his hair. Agent 33 was close by, watching the door.

The Hydra agent balked. "I don't know anything. SHIELD's been missing in action since then. We had reports that their leader went down into the tunnels. Speculation is that he's dead and they haven't found a new chief yet."

"Director," corrected Ward.

"Wha...what?" asked the agent confused.

"SHIELD has a director in charge, not a chief," Ward elaborated.

"Same thing right?" said the agent. "Point is, they haven't been seen in weeks."

"That's all you know?"

The Hydra agent nodded.

"Then we're done," said Ward. He let go of the man's hair, dropping him to the ground. Then he leveled his pistol and pulled the trigger. Agent 33 glanced his way, so he tipped his head to indicate the door.

On their way back to their base of operations, he remained quiet. He thought over the possibility that Coulson might be dead. A small part of him was saddened by the prospect, but overall he hoped the speculation was true. Coulson had kept him in that cage and refused to let him see Skye for months. Then he traded him to Christian, probably assuming that he would be executed. There was certainly no love lost there.

And really, if he was honest, Coulson was the biggest obstacle to getting Skye to come over to Cal and himself. It was Coulson who had brought Skye into SHIELD and believed in her long before everyone else did. Her loyalty to him would be difficult to overcome. Of course, that loyalty was something he loved about her, but it would need to be replaced. However, if Coulson was gone, the battle was going to be much easier.


End file.
